A new, investigational drug could prolong her life and give her a little more time with her 11-year-old son. But it wasn't available on the market yet.

The drug, pertuzumab, was not expected to be released until June, after being approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But Gant didn't have time to wait. She didn't have time, period. Without treatment, doctors told her, she might not even make it to Mother’s Day.

Gant refused to accept that. She did what she’s been doing since she was diagnosed six years ago: She fought back. In April, she recorded and posted a YouTube video of her pleading for the early release of pertuzumab under compassionate use, which allows critically ill patients to get a drug not yet approved by the FDA when other treatments are not available or already have been exhausted.

‘It Could Save My Life’

In the video, Gant lies in a hospital bed, too weak to even lift her head. Beside her are cards and letters to her 11-year-old son — envelopes he’ll open when he turns 18, graduates from high school, becomes a man, gets married. Gant will not be around to see these milestones, so she’s planning ahead, preparing her only child for a life without his mother.

“Did you always know I loved you?” she reads tearfully from a card meant for his next birthday, coming up in October. “Of all the things in my life I could have or should have done differently, there’s one thing I’d never change: having you as my son.”

She goes on then to describe her battle with breast cancer: How she was diagnosed when her son was 5. How she thought she’d beat it in 2009, only to find out a year later that it had spread to her bones and liver. How she can’t eat or even shower because of the pain. How she’s watched friends and family with the disease die around her, leaving behind their children the way she’ll have to leave her son.

“It’s not normal to have a 30-year-old woman" lying in a casket "with three young kids ... peeking in and crying," she said in the video. "And I’ve seen it too many times. We’re planning out cards and videos and books and passing on our final words and trying to raise our kids from beyond.

"How sad is that?”

In the meantime, she adds, the FDA is sitting on a drug that could delay death and give her and other women the dream of one more Mother’s Day or birthday or Christmas. “[A]lthough I don't put everything into pertuzumab, it could stabilize me and help save my life and extend my time here on earth with my 11-year-old son and my family,” she says.

The problem wasn't the FDA, according to ABC News. It had already given the green light for compassionate use of pertuzumab. The drug maker, Genentech Inc., had not.

Gant’s video changed that. In the two weeks since the clip was posted, it has been watched by more than 39,000 people, many of whom called or wrote to Genentech to pressure the company to release the drug. Last week, Gant received her first dose.

How Does Compassionate Use Work?

Compassionate use, or expanded access, was created by the FDA in 1987 to allow doctors to treat patients with scientifically tested but pre-approved drugs in emergency or life-threatening situations. Pharmaceutical companies can work with the FDA to create compassionate use programs, or, in special cases, patients may apply for singular access (as Gant did).

Under normal guidelines, the individual’s doctor is required to send the FDA information about the patient, why the request is being made, and the proposed treatment plan, along with a signed informed consent form. Patients are evaluated on a case-by-case basis, but in general, they must meet certain requirements, says the National Cancer Institute:

Gant’s situation is unique in that the compassionate-use request was made by her rather than her doctor — though the Moffitt Cancer Center, where she’s being treated, has reviewed and approved her case — but in other ways, she is a prime example of how the system works.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work for everyone.

Women like Gant die every day of breast cancer, waiting for a cure, a miracle, a second chance. “I’m in pain most of the time, but I guess I’m one of the lucky ones,” Gant says in the video, explaining that she’s at least still conscious and able to communicate. “There’s too many of us dying.”

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